Wedding Tips || 5 Tips for Picking Wedding Picture Locations

So you are getting closer to the wedding day and its time to start looking for wedding picture locations. I always recommend keeping your photographer in the loop with which locations you are interested in. They will most likely have experience in those locations and can provide some helpful feedback. When looking for a spot, there are a few things to keep in mind.

Permits

The most important thing to take into consideration is checking to see if the location requires a permit. Most locations in cities such as parks, historic sites, landmarks, etc. will most likely require a permit. Most locations I have run into always require the Bride or Groom to provide their information for the permit as well as how many other people will also be on location. If there are any location rules they provide you with, its always a good thing to keep the photographer informed.

Don’t Hold Back!

Don’t hold back from doing something fun and different! I always love to see what makes my couples “tick”. How did you guys meet? Where were you when you knew your spouse was “the one”? What activity do you guys like to do together? You can take these into consideration when picking portrait locations. I’ve been to bars, breweries, playgrounds, and train stations. I’ve gone hiking, the shore, libraries of colleges you name it I’ve done it, and if I haven’t done it, I would love to!

Popular Public Locations

With popular public locations, there are a few things you should watch out for. One of the biggest is the amount of people that will be roaming around. When photographing in public spaces, we technically can’t tell people to move so we can take pictures. Most times we just work around them and they will move out of the way once they see the beautiful couple. When photographers photograph the first thing we look for is the quality of light. So what may look fantastic to your eye, the camera will view it differently.

Timing

Make sure you have enough time! Take travel, traffic, load and unload time into consideration. When I build my Bride and Grooms timelines, I specifically build extra time into the timeline. If we need to use it, rock on, its there! If we don’t need to use it, sweet, you can relax for a bit! This is a very crucial part in making sure you have plenty of time for portraits so before setting locations make sure to run the plan by the photographer.

Transportation (City Weddings)

Getting limousines, trollies, or party busses is a good route to go if you are taking a lot of people around for portraits. Makes life really easy for the everyone because no one has to drive and hunt down Uber Drivers. The part most couples don’t realize is that in the City, or these smaller towns, the buses and limos can park anywhere they would like without really getting a ticket. Photographer’s and Videographer’s can’t. We have to physically park out cars somewhere and walk to the location with our gear. Its always good to plan this out prior so the photo and video team can jump in the transportation with you.